The Library: The Most Versatile Room In The House
Photo Credit @rubyandpeachphoto
We have what most people would call a formal dining room. While I love pomp and circumstance, formal isn’t quite the word I would use. Everything in our house can be dressed up and certainly dressed down.
When we remodeled we had this odd space that was not quite a room but more than a space in between the living room, dining room and the keeping room off the kitchen. In its previous life it had been a sun porch and at some point was enclosed.
We removed all traces of the “outside of the house”, brick, exterior doors and of all things still inside the house, an exterior window.
We decided to make it a library so that all the books we owned and that included my extensive collection of cookbooks could all be in one place. We did have to purchase some vintage Reader’s Digest bound books to fill in the most narrow of shelves over the doorways.
Our contractor AND my husband gave me googly-eyed odd looks when I said I wanted the bookshelves to extend around and over all four doorways that opened into this room. Well, it worked beautifully.
Why is this room so versatile? Usually, the very narrow dining table is set with stacks of coffee table books, bowls of collected items and occasionally a few fresh flowers.
At any given time, someone will be sitting at one end of the table with a laptop or the errands for the day will be lined up at one end ready for tasking and completion. At the holidays it serves as the buffet table for the spread of Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve food for the entire family.
The sideboard in the dining room works well for holding pitchers of water, tea and bottles of wine. When we have just one couple over for dinner and sometimes two, it makes the perfect intimate table for dinner.
Our dining room table is 72” round and can be a bit cold and distanced for two couples. When dining in the library during warm weather, we throw open the French doors onto the covered porch and enjoy an almost alfresco dinner.
The library truly is the most versatile room in our house. Sometimes we even read a book there!
